O Magnum Mysterium

O Magnum Mysterium is a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas. Consequently, it is music appropriate for the Christmas morning church service.

Christmas festivities often celebrate the birth of Jesus, or Nativity, with various customs, many of which have been influenced by earlier winter festivals. The Nativity is based on biblical accounts that Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary, assisted by her husband Joseph, in the city of Bethlehem.

The birth took place in a "stable," surrounded by farm animals, and the infant Jesus was laid in a manger. Shepherds from the fields surrounding Bethlehem were told of the birth by an angel, and were the first to see the child.

Responsorial chants are often composed of an amalgamation of various stock phrases, pieced together in a practice called centonization (from Latin cento or patchwork). Responsorial chants originally consisted of a refrain called a respond sung by a choir, alternating with psalm verses sung by a soloist. For my setting I removed the psalm verse and replaced the second half of the respond with alternate text.

The practice of centonization was also applied to music where composing the melody or melodies would be based on pre-existing melodic figures and formulas. My “melodic figure or formula” are the notes D-E-A-F#. “D” represents the Father; “E” represents the Mother; “A” represents the Creator; and “F#” represents the Son. The familial trinity is suggested by the notes D-E-F# representing the father, mother and child and the Holy Trinity is suggested by the notes D-F#-A representing the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This motto motive (D-E-A-F#) is used throughout the composition.